Alright, I know you are making money hand over fist but…

This Christmas my father asked for a Bersa Thunder .380 like mine. So the family got together and we pooled money for the big gift this year for him. Once I worked the funding out, I went to my local Hoffman’s Guns “Guns for the good guys” and looked in their case. They had none.

So, having no Bersa’s in the case, I talked to a woman who I believe is the owners wife. I asked her if in fact they were getting more Thunder 380’s and if he could order one after the holiday. She assured me that yes they were getting more in sometime soon, but if they were not in, he could just order one and viola! He would have his gun.

And so the holiday passed. My dad got his gift certificate and a slew of 380 ammo and he was jazzed to go and order the gun. He goes down to the store and asks to order one. He is told by the sales guy that they are no longer carrying the Bersa because they are “substandard” and gee, wouldn’t he rather buy this five hundred dollar Sig?

I get a call from my dad and he relates the story. I tell him to do nothing, walk away, I will meet him at the store tomorrow and I will hunt down the owner or that woman that I talked to. It smelled rank, and I immediately thought;

“BAIT AND SWITCH”

I thought though, that perhaps this was just some wanker wanting to sell up and thus I went the next day (yesterday) to the store to see whats what. If my father could not get the gun he wanted, that I was told he COULD get at this store, then they should return my money and I would take him to the competition where I have seen with my very own eyes, the very same guns we seek not a day before.

I get there, and I locate the woman I spoke to before and explain the situation. She says she was unaware of anything like this happening and she would speak to the owner. She went off and came back with;

“No problem, just leave your name and number and we will see about ordering this gun for you. You will likely have it within days. Though, I guess we are no longer carrying the gun because it is sub standard”

No worries I think. He orders the gun, leaves his number and we leave the place. Flas forward to about an hour ago…

I get a phone call from my father..
Dad:”I talked to the guy at the store, he says he called one of his distributors and he is not carrying the Bersa.. He says maybe he can get one but it could take up to six months…”

Me:”What the fuck? And he only talked to one distributor?”

Dad:”Yep, he was nice about it, but yeah, he only talked to one out of three”

Me:”Well, did you ask him to talk to the other ones?”

Dad:”Yeah, but he wasn’t too encouraging…”

Me:”I want the money back then and I will take you to the other store”

Dad:”Well, they won’t give us the money back, he already said so”

Me:”Well then, either they make an exception to that rule because I was told that you COULD order that gun from there and you would have it within days OR I buy that last gun I wanted from there with the certificate and NEVER do business with them again”

And there we are… Tomorrow I am meeting my father to see what can be done then taking him to the competition to buy him the gun he wanted. This as you might tell, PISSES me off. I checked online again as to reviews of the thunder and pretty much universally, it has gotten good reviews. I really think that the issue is that these clowns are not making any real money off the gun because it is under $300.00 a gun. In either case, this smacks of something rotten.

They are not the only game in town…

I would go to the BBB but really, what’s it going to get me? In the end, the way that they are handling this tells me enough. I don’t want to shop there anymore.